Boy, 11, calls cops for 'revenge' on parents

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A young child in eastern Sweden who was fed up with his parents called police on Monday and reported them for assault. Police took the claim seriously as several officers rushed to the scene.

"The young boy called police and said that he was assaulted by his mother," Tomas Agnevik at the Östergötland police told The Local.

The 11-year-old managed to tell emergency services his Linköping address before the line went dead, and police were quick to react.

"This is something that we take very seriously, and we sent several officers to investigate," Agnevik added.

But upon arrival, officers found that the boy was simply crying wolf.

"It turned out he had just made up the whole thing to get revenge on his parents after an argument. He had a tendency for doing it, he'd done it before," Agnevik explained.

The local police then gave the boy a "stern talking to" and explained that the emergency number "shouldn't be used for revenge".

Fake reports of child abuse are a rarity in Östergötland, the officer explained.

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"It's unusual that someone actually followed through with making a call like this. People usually just think about it, or joke about it. To actually call police and say 'There's been a crime' - that's pretty uncommon," Agnevik told The Local.

He added that actual cases of child assault are rare too. Sweden became the first country in the world to ban corporal punishment in 1979.